Autodidactism
By Kareem Carr
Autodidactism is the art of self-learning or self-teaching.
Archive for April 2009
Choosing an advisor: Part trois
by Tom Wright
It seems that picking an advisor is a hot topic on this board, so I’m joining in on the fun. However, I’ll do it more from the perspective of what you should look for.
Picking an advisor is the single most important thing you will do in graduate school. Allow me to reiterate: it is THE most important thing you will do. It’s certainly more important than your thesis topic; it’s probably more important than your choice of school in the first place. Continue reading ‘Choosing an advisor: Part trois’ »
Teaching Your Own Class
Many graduate students will have the opportunity during graduate school to teach their own classes. Usually this comes after some number of semesters of TAing. Being wholly responsible for a class brings up many issues that do not arise for TAs, and I want to discuss and give advice about some of them in this post.
ISSUE 1: YOU are responsible for the syllabus and schedule for the class.
Maybe you are teaching a standard calculus course where the syllabus is already decided for you, but in any case, you will be setting the schedule of lecture topics. The most important thing about this is to DO IT. In advance. Continue reading ‘Teaching Your Own Class’ »
Choosing an Advisor: Part Deux
Choosing an academic advisor is never an entirely straightforward process. It takes a lot of effort find someone who is a good fit both mathematically and personally. A good choice can lead to some of the most productive and enjoyable years of your life, while a bad choice can obscure some of the joy in doing and teaching mathematics. In most cases, the process of choosing an advisor will terminate on a someone down the hall. In a minority of cases, however, the most natural choice might be an individual at an entirely different institution. As one might expect, such a choice has its plus’s and minus’s. This post is about my experiences choosing such an advisor, and the effect this choice has had on my life. Continue reading ‘Choosing an Advisor: Part Deux’ »
How to Deal with “I Hate Math”
In a recent discussion with a group of graduate and undergraduate students in mathematics, we came to the following conclusions about how to respond to those who tell you “I hate math”, which can seem like a real conversation-stopper if you do math all day 
1) Keep in mind that people probably don’t hate math– They hate the tests they did poorly on and the algebra homework they had to do in high school. So you might – gasp! – agree with them that you weren’t that keen on high school math either but that there is more than that. Then you can elaborate. Continue reading ‘How to Deal with “I Hate Math”’ »
Going Paperless
By Kareem Carr
As last Wednesday was Earth day, I wanted to have an environmentally friendly theme this week. However, I also wanted to elaborate on implementing certain aspects of my one hundred paper strategy. So, I thought I could say something about going paperless. Continue reading ‘Going Paperless’ »
Getting Started with LaTeX
By Kareem Carr
Here are a few good links for getting started with LaTeX: Continue reading ‘Getting Started with LaTeX’ »
Tracking Research Progress – Research Journals
By Mohamed Omar
As a graduate student, research can often feel daunting. One of the most common stresses is the feeling of little progress over long periods of time, as if one is getting nowhere. This can spiral into a lack of motivation and enthusiasm, which ultimately sets one back. How can such a rut be avoided?
One great tool to consider is a research journal. Writing a research journal is straightforward: at the end of your day, simply write a synopsis of the day’s research activities. This includes:
1) Writing results you have come up with, regardless of your opinion of its worth. Strong research is often the culmination of many small ideas.
2) Listing conjectures you have thought about. This gives you concrete problems to work on in the days to come.
3) Writing a synopsis of discussions with professors or other graduate students.
4) Reflecting on a talk and its connections to your problems.
The benefits of a daily journal are plentiful. By maintaining the journal, you develop a chronicle of your thought processes over a long period of time. This makes the big picture clearer, and adds a strong sense of direction to your research. On a microscopic level, viewing the daily entries once every few weeks gives you a concrete map of the progress you’ve made. Besides the tracking benefits, keeping a daily journal makes paper writing easier, you’re results are already written! All in all, a daily research journal is an effective and constructive addition to research.
Looking for a Job? Read This.
by Kareem Carr
Bottom line: These are a few simple tips for using your mathematical skills in jobs and research opportunities outside of mathematics.
For this article, I decided to discuss something that is probably of relevance to many people at this point in the year, but on which I cannot give the final word as I am still learning myself: job hunting. Specifically, I want to talk about ways in which mathematicians can promote themselves to non-mathematicians either for employment or for collaboration. I hope that some of you, readers, will give your opinions. I will summarize my experiences into a few simple rules:
1. Learn how to listen. Do not ignore what people are telling you about what they think is important about their problem and what they want you to solve. Imagine trying to use a calculator or computer that always wanted to have a debate with you about the worth of computing a result before it would compute it. It would be unpleasant and tedious. While I am not saying that you should view yourself as merely a tool, you should realize that most people are coming to mathematics as consumers.
Continue reading ‘Looking for a Job? Read This.’ »
The One Hundred Paper Strategy
by Kareem Carr
Bottom line: This is a strategy for rapidly aggregating and analyzing a large number of research papers on a particular topic using online resources.
Beginning the research process can sometimes seem daunting and for this reason we often put it off. It can seem like it ought to take months. Frequently, when we do apply ourselves, we approach it in a more awkward and disorganized way that we should. However, this need not be the case. The 100-paper strategy is simply a strategy that I have found for aggregating and summarizing 100 papers in a week or less.
Organization is key. The strategy draws almost all of its power from doing this in an organized way. To this end, we must be able to execute actions quickly. In order to execute actions quickly, we must have clear simple goals at each stage and do one thing at a time. We must be ruthless in cutting away the little inefficiencies that cost us seconds or stretch into minutes or hours of indecision. Continue reading ‘The One Hundred Paper Strategy’ »
